What was the name of McDonald's first national breakfast advertising mascot?

Birdie the Early Bird was McDonald's first national breakfast advertising mascot.

McDonald's introduced Birdie in 1980 as the company expanded and promoted its breakfast business. The character gave breakfast a dedicated identity within McDonaldland and helped communicate that McDonald's was not only a lunch and dinner restaurant.

Birdie appeared in national advertising and promotional material as an energetic yellow bird associated with early mornings. Her name was a direct verbal cue: customers were encouraged to think of McDonald's breakfast as something for “early birds.”

This fact is sometimes confused with the history of McDonald's breakfast itself. The chain began testing breakfast products before Birdie appeared, and the Egg McMuffin was introduced nationally in 1975. Birdie was therefore a branding development that followed the menu's expansion, not the invention of McDonald's breakfast.